Wanted to do a quick post on some of the cool gadgets we will be demoing in the Geek Speak Lounge at Synergy 2008 sponsored by Intel.  Alot of the devices are  the ones you may have seem me blog on earlier, and a few are potential candidates to add into the mix down the road.  Here's your chance to get hands on with some of these next generation access devices, and BYOG (Bring Your Own Gadget) that you think would make a good Nirvana Device candidate for use with Citrix:

 
If you look close you'll see 4 of these devices actively connected to a XenDesktop, and 2 of them remoting that desktop from the device out to a larger screen in true Nirvana Device fashion!
 
Devices shown starting in the front and moving counter clockwise:
 

• i-Mate 9502
• Impatica Showmate
• Nokia 810N
• HP iPAQ 210 - accessing a XenDesktop
• i-Mate 6150 (behind the iPAQ) - accessing a XenDesktop connected to the 22" Dell Monitor
• Celio Redfly Mobile Companion
• Sprint Treo 700wx (on the Redfly) - accessing a XenDesktop connected to the Redfly
• Nokia E90 - accessing a XenDesktop
• Nokia E61i

All of the devices shown currently work with XenApp and XenDesktop except for the Nokia 810N.  Intel will also be providing some prototype devices to show off as well. 

We'll also be following up to this post with a full rundown of all of the cool stuff that you can see and use in the GS Lounge early next week!

Look forward to seeing you and hearing your comments in the Geek Speak Lounge at Synergy 2008

PS: You might even have a chance to one of these cool devices home with you from the show to use with your own XenApp and soon XenDesktop environment!!!

There are millions of gaming consoles out there, they should be being leveraged to deliver the fullest set of media possible, and it is possible to do without changing a thing, sort of!

The gaming console has evolved into being much more than just for gaming, it is becoming a media conduit for access to all kinds of media.

I am going to blur the line on the definition of media and include web, applications, and desktops as a type of media, because they are also media.

The ongoing perception is that the gaming console should only be focused on being a gaming console. Also, there is the argument that if gaming consoles started to have to worry about adding new features that they would lose focus of what they were intended to be in the first place.  Well, I do agree to a point that it should first and foremost be what it was originally designed for, a gaming console. Another argument is the fear that if the gaming console becomes too much like a PC, you now would have to worry about installing applications, getting updates for applications, and then there is the whole virus issue. I believe that there is a middle ground to the issue, in that the industry has been delivering applications for a while now, companies like Citrix and Microsoft have pioneered the application delivery industry, there is no need to develop applications for a given platform.

I titled this article in reference to the XBOX 360, but it also applies to the Wii and the PS3, as these gaming media consoles are capable of internet connections, they have the ability to support USB and Wireless peripherals such as a keyboard and mouse, and they all support a high enough video resolution that the on screen user experience would not be diminished. We are already seeing the user experience on small form factor and mobile devices being greatly enhanced with true web browsing, remote applications, and remote desktops.

 Also, I used reference to the ICA and RDP protocols for good reason, as these protocols have already solved the problems of application and desktop delivery. In a minimalistic approach and a starting point, we could leverage these protocols to access a remote desktop to computers on our home networks, just as Microsoft is doing with their Media Center Extender abilities already with the XBOX 360. In a grander vision, it would be something truly amazing to be able to utilize them to also access published applications that exist on the internet or the work place, over secured connections of course, which these protocols already do.

Is the gaming console in jeopardy of becoming something much bigger, and quite possibly becoming a Cloud Computing Device, it's hard to say, but I for one hope that we see the convergence and use of remote desktop and remote application abilities given serious thought for the gaming console.

Frameworkx Community Blog - What if the XBOX 360 supported the RDP Protocol?

Use of the Citrix ICA client on mobile devices that have VGA resolution  or larger, or companion devices such as the Celio Redfly changes the game a bit when using the Citrix ICA client to connect to full Win32 applications delivered by Citrix Xenapp.  The increased resolution can leverage some configuration changes on the ICA client to get more optimal usage.  Below are some tweaks that you can do to get a more "Nirvana" like experience with such devices.  This setting was used in the demo blog entries previously posted. 
Most Win32 applications are usable at a VGA 640x480 resolution, so I recommend running ICA in full screen mode on mobile devices that support VGA resolution.  This allows the user to get rid of the program bar at the top of the screen and the navigation tool bar at the bottom of the ICA client.  Comparison pictures below (Note: screen clarity is degraded in the below screen shots, native screen is clear).  Caution, when you run in full screen mode, you will not have access to the local keyboard button, thus if you device does not have a QWERTY keyboard, you should have a Bluetooth keyboard connected.  

 HP iPaq 210 running ICA connection to SAP Enterprise Portal without the Full Screen option set.  Notice the screen space that is lost at the top and bottom of the screen. 

HP iPaq 210 running ICA connection to SAP Enterprise Portal with the Full Screen option set.  This allows you to leverage the full resolution of the device. 

To set the Full Screen option, simply follow the steps below.  Note that this is a global option and all of the apps you launch will come up in Full Screen mode.  

In the Programs area, start "ICA Client":
  

This should launch the ICA Client UI into your browser.

Select "Edit Global Settings" from this screen:  

Select "Edit Preferences" on the next page:

Scroll down to the "Enable Full Screen" check box and select it:

Scroll down to the bottom and select the "Save" button:

So if you have a mobile device that supports VGA 640x480 resolution or higher, you might try the above settings to get a better user experience.  Also, if you need to access another application on the mobile device while running a XenApp or XenDesktop session in Full Screen mode, you can always hit the Windows button on your device to pull up the devices start menu as shown below.

So our search for the Nirvana Smartphone, or companion device at CTIA 2008 comes to an end with this post.  Our friends at i-mate have gotten us another device to put through the Hotel Acid Test.  In this case an i-mate Ultimate 9502.  I'll let you check out the full specs on their website, but this device packs VGA 640x480 resolution onto a 2.8" screen.  The clarity of the screen is very good, allowing you to clearly read the text, but again, some may need to pull out the reading glasses when not connected to an external monitor.  Stand-alone pics below: 

Pic 1: 9502's browser connected to Web Interface.

Pic 2: 9502 connected to a published desktop.

So how did it do in our Hotel Acid Test, not bad.  While the VGA resolution is a little tight on the native screen, it works well when output to a larger monitor.  As with the 6150, there is no noticeable latency when outputting the video to the TV.  The 9502 uses a RCA audo video cable to output to the external monitor, and it's not quite as clear as the 6150 which uses a VGA cable, but still very usable.  The icons are a little fuzzy, but I'm having not problem using this setup.  You also get a fade-in effect of the letters when typing, but again, not a big deal IMO.  Again, the network connection is 3G WWAN on ATT, and latency while using Word is not an issue at all, very responsive. 

Pic 3: 9502 connected to hotel TV using RCA audo/video cable. 

You are currently limited to the 640x480 resolution even when attached to an external monitor, which is fine for most Win32 apps, or desktops.  But it sure would be nice to have 1024x768 or larger functionality down the road.  The VGA 640x480 resolution could also be less than optimal if connecting to an overhead projector while giving a presentation. 

But in general, I'm liking this device as well.  Seems to have a good mix features that's making using it with XenApp for this post rather comfortable.  Very quick and responsive as I'm typing this post.  Maybe not the ultimate Nirvana Smartphone, but definitely a potential contender in today's market.  I can definitely see certain road warriors leaving their laptop at home if they have this in their pocket. 

Being this is my last post, I had to try my favorite test on a mobile device, viewing a 3D AutoDesk design from XenApp on a mobile device over ICA, you gotta love SpeedScreen!  We gotta get another video of this demo out, but this time running to an external monitor!  A still shot shown below. 

Pic 4: AutoDesk Design Review delivered by XenApp to the 9502 output to the hotel TV.  I cut the flash on this pic so the screen didn't wash out as much. 

Unfortunatley, you get not sense of the performance with a still pic.
Got some comments on this use case, give us your feedback. 

As I stated in my previous post, there is no one Nirvana devicethat will fit everyone's tastes, so here's another twist on the topic. 

Impatica Showmate  is a device, call it a "puck", that you make a Bluetooth connection to from your smartphone using its Screen Projector software that you install on your smartphone.  A VGA cable is connected between the Showmate and the monitor you want to use.  You must register your mobile device with the Showmate.  Simply start the installed client on mobile device, enter in a few numbers from the bottom of the Showmate to register.  Then you just choose what registered Showmate device you want to connect to and hit select.  Your screen then pops up on the monitor the Showmate is connected to. 

 
Pic 1: Picture of the Showmate "puck", and VGA and USB power ports. 

Impatica was in the BlackBerry booth at CTIA showing their Showmate working with BlackBerry phones.  As part of the demo environment, they had the Rove Mobile Citrix Client on demo BB, and showed how they can remote the ICA presentation to an external monitor.  As you can see from the show pics below, they have some novel ideas about using this type of setup on portable LCD screens and such that you would find in police squad cars or utility trucks.  Great idea, especially when matched with the Rove Mobile Citrix Client to get access to all kinds of data from the secured data center. 

Pic 3: Michael Doyle, Impatica Director, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer showing the Impatica Showmate at CTIA 2008.

Pic 4: Showmate displaying a BlackBerry screen onto a portable LCD monitor inside a customer UI, mock of a law enforcement unit.  You can see the ICA session imbedded in the customer UI.

To stay consistent, I put the Impatica Showmate through the same hotel acid test I did with the other vendors.  I must note that the Windows Mobile Impatica ScreenProjector client that I'm using as I type this is still in Beta.  I used the Showmate with 2 devices, a Dell Axim X51v and an ATT 8525.  Latency on the X51v was very noticeable at times on the X51v, but response was good when using the 8525.  Note sure if this is related to old .vs. newer hardware/Bluetooth stacks, or the fact that the X51v has a larger resolution.  In general basic text entry like I'm doing now is pretty good.  Again, thanks to the Impatica team for getting us this beta to try.  I'm sure they still have some tuning tweaks up their sleeves before GA. 

The script is the same, in this case I'm using the Dell Axim X51v connected to the Showmate via Bluetooth to VGA out to the hotel's flat screen TV.  This picture below is an actual picture of the creation of the text for this blog using a XenApp connection to a published desktop, and running MS Word on that desktop over ICA.  This is where I stop and take the picture

Pic 5: Show mate connecting the Axim X51v running the ICA cleint to the hotel TV, and bluetooth mouse and keyboard.

The Showmate form factor is interesting in that you can see the device, or derivative of this device being imbedded in other devices to meet different goals, as shown in there show demo pciture above with a custom UI on the mountable LCD screen.  Imagine the use case of a utility working or law enforcement office having a mobile device that when in there car or truck is having applications and data delivered to them via XenApp or XenDesktop.  But once they exit their vehicle, they take the  mobile device with them and continue to have the same apps and data delivered to them, just on the native screen of the mobile device.  Whether it be a policeman on foot, or a utility working working on a transformer in the bucket of his boom truck.  A very interesting modular device approach IMO.  But at the same time, I can see road warriors carrying the Showmate with them to do presentations from their mobile phone, or use in the hotel as I am.  You can read more on their website, but they already have a lot of road warriors using their Showmate today.  They also have a product that compresses PowerPoint presentations, and then an optimized viewer to run the presentation from the mobile device.  You can get more details on this from their website.   

So does the Showmate pass the Hotel acid test?  Yes, I've been able to create this post using the Showmate, and my mobile device, and it does provide benefits described around a Nirvana Deviceuse case.  So it's definitely another option, with it's own twist on the Nirvana Device seach. 

Like this twist, tell us why or why not.  As always, we are looking for your input on defining the Nirvana Devicefor use with XenApp and XenDesktop.  

The next find on our quest for the Nirvana Smartphoneis the i-mate Ultimate 6150 (i-mate 6150 web site) shown below.   The 6150's native screen resolution is VGA 640x480, making it natively more suitable for displaying Win32 apps via XenApp than most QVGA screens. 

Pic 1: 6150's browser connected to Web Interface ready to authenticate.  

Pic 2: 6150 running a full published desktop at 640x480.  I probably should have cleaned the screen before taking the picture

So what makes the 6150 a Nirvana Devicecandidate (Original Nirvana Device Post), it's got video output natively built into the device.  The 6150 comes with a VGA adapter cable that connects into the side of the device, so you can then connect it to a monitor that accepts VGA input.  The 6150 comes with software that when activated changes the device resolution to 1024x768, turns the 6150's screen into a touchpad mouse and displays the 1024x768 output to the connected monitor.  Unfortunately, the cable that I have with my demo device is only about 4ft long and did not reach to the table that was working from, so I'm using my Bluetooth mouse and keyboard instead.  Might be something for the i-mate team to look at. 

Pic 3: 6150 External output software.

Pic 4: 6150 connected to the hotel's flatscreen TV, running a published desktop from XenApp.  MS Word is open and I'm working on this text using this setup.  The 6150 is the at the base of the TV in this pic.

All of the work to create this post will be using the 6150 connected to a published desktop in my hotel room using the flat screen TV as an external monitor (except for photo resizing which I will do with my OQO, being I don't have photo shop installed on our XenApp demo server).   Seems like a real world use case to me.

In general, I like the 6150, and it is the closest device I've gotten my hands on to date to hit Chris Fleck's Nirvana deviceconcept.  Personally, I like devices to have a QWERTY keyboard on the native device as well, and I hope to get a chance to try the i-mate 8150 down the road, which does have a QWERTY and VGA out capability.  I also like the fact that the VGA feature is native to the device, so I don't need to carry anything extra but the VGA cable.  Flip side is that unlike the Redfly (Celio Redfly post), if I don't have a monitor handy, let's say in the airport, I'm restricted to the native screen of the 6150.  Hey, if i-mate gives me a really long cable, maybe I can plug into one the TVs in the airport that always running CNN

So how do I rate the 6150 as a Nirvana device candidate, again I give it an "I like it".  I think I'd like the 8150 even better with the QWERTY keyboard, but in terms of it being a smartphone that I can run XenApp applications natively and then attach it an external monitor to extend the usability, it passes my initial hotel acid test.  At the end of the day, a Nirvana SmartPhoneis a personal choice.  So if you're interested in the concept, I'd say that the i-mate 6105 is one to have a look at. 

As always, give us your feed back on this topic.  I've got a few more entries on more devices from the show to come.  Hopefully one will be the Nirvana Smartphone you're looking for to use with XenApp or soon XenDesktop, and you can leave the laptop at home on that next business trip.  As with all of the devices being tried, we will get some more hands on time with them when I get back to FTL.  We'll try and update if we find anything new.   

This little application verifies the version of both Citrix Client and the Remote Desktop Client.
It's a cool app that allows your help desk run on client machines and not relie on users to tell you what version they are running.

This tool was written by our good friend Alex author of iShadow and fellow Microsoft MVP.

Download: ICA RDP Version Checker 

Gus Pinto, Microsoft MVP
Technology Evangelist
Frameworkx.com

As more and more people experience the recent beta release of XenDesktop, the value of Citrix's ICA protocol in delivering graphics is getting a lot of notice. ICA is shining in environments where network latency puts other protocols to shame.

Here are a couple of recent video blog posts that capture the performance advantages of ICA for graphical content. The first video (click here to view) shows the simple and common task of dragging an image across the screen, as you might do when editing a PowerPoint. The second video (click here to view) shows a CAD viewing and publishing application, eDrawings from SolidWorks. These are good examples of how ICA technologies such as SpeedScreen Image Acceleration and SpeedScreen Progressive Display optimize the user experience.

Derek Thorslund
Product Strategist, Multimedia Virtualization

Citrix has partnered with Nokia on ICA clients for their Symbian devices for years.  I recently did an interview with the Nokia team on use of the Citrix ICA client for Series 60 3rd Edition devices such as E61, E70 and E90 devices for their Nokia Forum Pro.  These ICA clients can be downloaded from http://www.citrix.com/English/SS/downloads/details.asp?dID=2755&downloadID=165587&pID=186.

Snippet from the interview below: 

Helping enterprise IT departments

 The Citrix XenApp Client for S60 3rd Edition devices offers some very clear benefits to IT departments as well, Marano adds. "From an IT perspective, the flexibility of mobile devices can be scary," he says. "How do you encourage people to use them, but also make sure that they are used properly and securely? With this solution, the same infrastructure being used today for external laptops and desktops can be used to deliver applications to the Series 60 3rd Edition devices. Minimizing the number of technologies used to deliver business-critical data to end users regardless of device type, by standardizing on a single platform, is a key factor to consider."

The interview gives a good overview of use Nokia S60 devices, but also provides a pretty good overview on the use of mobile devices as a whole with XenApp.

The full PDF interview can be found at: http://www.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/Developers/Success_Stories/Enterprise_&_productivity/Dev_succ_Citrix_SC_v1.0.pdf

My first blog on Mobile Devices and The App Delivery Center seemed to get enough hits that I thought I would follow up with a video demo to give a better view of XenApp applications actually being delivered to a mobile device.  Also felt that it would be good to describe the setup used to create the video, so details follow below.  The demo was intended to show a "real world" use case that a lot of us have been through.  The script for the video is that your boss sends you an email asking you to perform a number of tasks in preparation for an upcoming meeting:

-       update a Word document

-       update an Excel spreadsheet

-       verify a CAD document is up to date

-       join a GoToMeeting

All of these tasks are performed in the below video.  Details on the setup:

-       A real ATT 8525 device with the 10.0 WinMo ICA client was used to connect to  a XenApp 4.5 server

-       The server is hosted on the internet, outside of the Citrix network.

-       The Web Interface changes referred to in my Mobile Devices and The App Delivery Center blog post are in use on this demo server, thus you get the better app sizing described in the aforementioned post (http://support.citrix.com/forums/thread.jspa?forumID=136&threadID=91629&tstart=0).

-       Soti Pocket Controller was used to display the screen of the 8525 on my laptop

-       When connected to Soti, an active sync connection is used, which actually provides the network connection for the 8525.  So the native 3G data connection of the 8525 was not used, BUT.

-       I used the EVDO Rev A connection on my laptop to connect to the internet, so even though the device has ATT 3G connection, a Verizon EVDO Rev A connection was actually used in this case, thus a WWAN connection is being used.

-       Camtasia was used to capture the Soti output on my laptop

So now that you know the gory setup to get this capture, the video is below.  Hope this give a better picture of use of the Citrix Mobile ICA clients.

Obviously some clarity of the video was lost during conversion and upload to YouTube.  But I thing you'll get the idea!

We recently had a meeting with a large partner of ours and they handed down some hefty requirements.  An average of 100 partners using their portal on any given month to access their development environments on the backend.  It was clear that NetScaler could scale, but the question was how to keep all of those partners separated from each other, without them peeking into each others traffic. It turned out to be easier than we thought using the NetScaler as an SSL VPN with the addition of some policies bound to each partner's user group.  The following is an overview of the network diagram, and there are some deployment guides to walk you through these installations. 

The Mac ICA Client 10.x has been completed and released to web. Thanks for all the Beta participants who provided their valuable feedback. Check out my earlier post for details on this client feature set. One new thing you will see in this client (compared to the Beta client) is a new icon for ICA. It looks way cooler compared to our previous Mac ICA icon. You can download this client from the client download page and remember that this is a universal binary client and hence can run on both Intel and PowerPC Macs.

Some people have been quite excited about the Citrix Presentation Server Solaris x86 8.50 Client release. ThinGuy statement on Sun Think Thin blog says it all: Freaking On So I decided to catch up with Chris Wright, the development team lead for this release. spelling remains for authenticity .

Question: Tell me about yourself and your experience at Citrix.
Answer: I am a Software Development manager at Citrix, based in our development center just outside London, UK. I have been working for Citrix for two and a half years, initially managing products in the Management Services Group, which produces components like Resource Manager, Network Manager, End-User Experience Monitoring, the Access Management Console framework etc. For the past six months, I have worked in the non Win32-clients group, managing the development side of the UNIX and Mac clients.

Question: Why is this release important to customers? What are the biggest benefits to customers?
Answer: This release brings the feature set for this client up to the same as that for Solaris SPARC, so we have a greatly enlarged feature set over the previous release. The main features in demand have been increased colour depth and resolution, encryption, and smart card support. This version also supports Solaris Trusted Extensions for the first time.

Question: In what industries do you expect to see the most use of this new client?
Answer: The main demand for this release was for government contracts, which is where the need for Solaris Trusted Extensions and smart card support arose. We have also seen demand from car manufacturers and telcos among others.

Question: What tips or tricks do you have for using this new client beyond what is in the Admin Guide?
Answer: None. (The Citrix Publications team must be doing a great job!)

Question: What are Citrix and Sun doing to further develop their relationship?
Answer: We are grateful for Sun engineers technical support while closing down this release. We have also released an updated Solaris x86 version of our Presentation Server product this year, so we are fully committed to the Solaris operating system.

would you like to see in the next Solaris x86 ICA client release?

The Citrix Multimedia Virtualization Initiative is an ongoing cross-product R&D effort focused on multimedia desktop and application delivery. Watch my video blog for a 6-minute introduction to the Multimedia Virtualization Initiative and learn how Citrix is continuing to enhance the ICA protocol to provide the best end-user experience as graphics and rich media technologies evolve.

My video blog references Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) technology and a fast-paced video that will give you a great appreciation for what WPF applications are all about. You can find Microsoft's WPF video at http://wpf.netfx3.com/blogs/news_and_announcements/archive/2007/05/10/wpf-momentum-video.aspx.

Derek Thorslund
Product Strategist, Multimedia Virtualization

To introduce myself, I am Sridhar Mullapudi from the Presentation Server product management team. I want to talk about our upcoming Mac ICA Client release and also request participation in a Beta program to give us some feedback. If you are interested, send a mail to Mac-ICAClient-Beta@citrix.com. As a Mac person myself, I am excited about this long awaited release. The main features in this release are

• Universal Binary Client - This client will run natively on Intel and PowerPC based Macs
• Seamless Windows - Ah! Finally. I guess I don have to explain what this feature is
• Session Sharing - Multiple application sessions from a user can share the same session. This means faster application launch times for subsequent applications.
• Improved file transfer speeds (at least twice as fast as before). You will see a big difference when you transfer files over a high latency link
• Session Reliability - This will let users reconnect automatically to the application(s) when connection is lost without displaying annoying dialogs
• Pass-through authentication - This is now enabled using Kerberos (the local machine and the PS environment should be set up to enable Kerberos)
• SpeedScreen image acceleration - This helps improve user experience when viewing web pages that have images etc.
• SpeedScreen Progressive Display - This is a cool feature introduced in PS 4.5 that dramatically improves (provides a local experience) when accessing 2-D applications etc
• SecureICA - This is not a new feature but we dropped it in the last client release and are introducing back due to strong customer request. Though Citrix strongly recommends using SSL for the ICA encryption needs, customers still use and like the simplicity of SecureICA and hence this support will be maintained for a while.
• Printing enhancements - Any printer available to local Mac application will be available for PS delivered applications. Users can also pick and choose their printer (not just relying on their default printer) and can change page sizes, layouts etc
• Keyboard Pass-through This will give the user an option of using Mac specific keyboard shortcuts that can be applied to the ICA Client itself (without passing it to the server application)

Mac OS 10.5, 10.4 and 10.3 versions will be supported with this client (though the recommended OS versions are 10.4 and 10.5)

Mac ICA Client is a high priority for Citrix and we will constantly innovate on this platform (we have already started planning for the next release). Some cool things we are thinking for the future are, ability to subscribe to applications (so you can put just the apps you need on your doc or desktop and can always have a one click access to them), much better integration with local desktop (use application icon instead of Citrix icon for the app on the dock, spotlight integration, simpler file type association etc). If you have any suggestions, feel free to share it with us.